4 Sporting and Rural Records of the Cheveley Estate. 



DiTTON 



VALE^•C1• 



The Earls 

 Peml)rok( 



DiTTON 



Camois 



England and interred in Westminster Abbey under a splendid 

 monument. His son and successor, Aymer de Valence, Earl 

 of of Pembroke, was a conspicuous sportsman, and a prominent 

 ■• commander in the wars of Scotland in the reigns of Edward I. 

 and Edward II. This whilom owner of the estate was famous 

 for his prowess in the saddle, and was what we would now call 

 a subscriber to the interdicted tournaments on Newmarket Heath 

 in 1309 and 1313. He was killed in France in 1323, and was 

 buried in Westminster Abbey, when the title became extinct ; 

 but it was afterwards revived in favour of Jasper Tudor, 

 created Earl of Pembroke, who, according to the court rolls 

 of the manor, obtained a grant of Ditton-Valence in the reign 

 of Henry VI. He was surnamed Hatfield, after the place of his 

 birth, and was one of the main pillars of the house of Lancaster 

 in the final stages of the Wars of the Roses, which ultimately 

 triumphed on Bosworth field. Upon the accession of his 

 nephew Henry VII., this Jasper, Earl of Pembroke, was created 

 Duke of Bedford, in October, 1485. He was a famous sports- 

 man, and his prowess in the saddle was undeniable. As an 

 administrator he held many prominent offices of State : was 

 Chief Justice of South Wales, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and 

 a Knight of the Garter. He died without heirs in 1495, when 

 the earldom of Pembroke and the dukedoin of Bedford became 

 extinct. The manor was subsequently in the possession of the 

 families of Oldhall and Gorges, and was given in exchange by 

 Sir Giles Capell to Henry VIII. 



In the reign of Elizabeth the adjoining manor was in 

 the family of Wendy, from whom it passed by inheritance to 

 the Coningsbys in the reign of Charles I. From the reign of 

 Charles II. to about the beginning of the reign of George II. 

 the manor belonged to the Viscounts Scudamore, a family 

 conspicuously identified with horse breeding, particularly in 

 Herefordshire, and whose arms were, most appropriately, gules, 

 three stirrups, leathered and buckled or. 



